Flippy the Hamburger-Cooking Robot Gets its First Restaurant Gig
Flippy, the hamburger-cooking robot developed by Miso Robotics, has landed its first restaurant gig at Caliburger in Pasadena. The burger-flipping “robotic kitchen assistant” has been put to work in a real-world kitchen for the first time. Caliburger, a fast-casual restaurant, was the first to get its hands on Flippy.
Caliburger is currently demoing the robot in its Pasadena location, and the restaurant has also pre-ordered a number of the robots with plans to implement them in 50 of its restaurants. While U.S.-based, the food chain is international, with many of its locations in places like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Pasadena is the first to get a crack at the robot, however, with Flippy currently operating in secret behind a black curtain.
Flippy hasn’t changed too much since its earliest days. Flippy is still essentially an industrial robotic arm. The biggest difference from a purely design standpoint is in Flippy’s hand. The clasping claw from earlier has been updated to a classic spinning spatula. The upgrade took a lot of programming on Miso’s end, but it was necessary. After all, you need the easiest to clean surface when dealing with raw meat – you really don’t want that stuff getting caught up in a device’s various nooks and crannies. The new version of Flippy is also bolted to the kitchen floor and configured to work specifically with the Caliburger kitchen’s parameters. The restaurant has a six-month exclusivity period on the robot. After that, interested parties will be able to pick up for around $60,000, a price that will likely increase over time as Miso continues to add new functionality to the robot.
Miso is working on a number of new features for the robot, including advanced computer imaging and AI that will help it adapt over time to things like a changing seasonal menu. The startup is also announcing a partnership with Kitchen United at today’s show that will bring Flippy robots to the “WeWork for restaurants.” Miso will be utilizing the information gathered at the space to improve its artificial intelligence and machine learning software.
